I realize “Earth Day” was actually yesterday BUT, as usual, I’m a little late. It took me FOREVER to go through over 200 photos that I’d taken on Sunday! I absolutely LOVE going on little adventures with my only real goal is attaining peace, spending time with a good friend, listening to music (mostly BAD music), laughing AND (here’s the biggest goal) looking through the lens of a camera to appreciate the beauty around me.

It’s no secret that I’m not the best photographer in the world. I just only love it. I don’t seem to ever find the time to REALLY practice or read manuals or even go to the classes that Hubby pre purchased for me to fine tune my skills. I just want to have fun!

Here’s some of the beauty I found through the lens of my camera. I think it’s pretty appropriate for “earth day” because, mostly, it’s all nature. Remember when I talked about appreciating your everyday surroundings? Like what makes America great to you? Sunday was one of those days where I found ALL kinds of average things that I see on a regular basis but it’s also representative of what makes America special to me.

Americana – this is a lot of what you’ll see everywhere in our Midwestern town. We live in the country so this is normal and I LOVE it 🙂

Just another red bud tree – When Spring begins, I can’t get enough of the vibrant colors of nature. Soon the red bud tree buds will turn into green leaves and we won’t see the purple.

Like I said, bff and I drove around looking for things to photograph. This is a picture of her – I made her go “fix” the American flag so that it would look better so I could shoot it. lol We didn’t know the people who owned this property… we just made our selves at home and did what we wanted! lol

As you can see, bff failed at her task of “fixing” the American flag. Don’t worry, I fired her! Buwahahahaha! But here’s the little outhouse anyway. I loved how it turned out 🙂 Another shot of Americana!

Bff, Beth aka Flashychick, looking for a crawdad (or crawfish for the Yankees reading this). This is her favorite thing to do when we walk along a creek. She always finds them too!

And like I said, she found one. It can barely qualify as one but I’ll go ahead and give it to her THIS time. Next time, I want to see a crawdad in a non embryotic stage. lmbo

Not sure why I love this pic so much? Beth and I just found a spot on the bank of a creek where we could sit and talk with only the sounds of nature to interrupt us. I guess this pic makes me feel the peace that I felt that day 🙂 Our chairs were just waiting for us to sit and relax.

The creek bed rock was solid granite. In the Ozark Mountain area of Missouri, we have tons of granite! I just think it’s so beautiful.

Me and my chair again 🙂 This is actually funny because I was trying to practice “positive visualization” here by writing down how I was definitely going to win a lot of money on the scratch off lottery tickets that I saved to scratch off at “just the right time”. Did it work, all that positive visualization? Nope. It did not. Maybe I was supposed to write my positive affirmation BEFORE I purchased those lottery tickets and not after they were already bought and paid for? IDK. What I DO know is that I’m still poor. lol

Time to leave our peaceful little creek and go find MORE beauty!

LOVE this one… NOT because my photography was so wonderful cause yeah, it’s not. lol But check out those little baby lambs running and jumping and playing! I took about a hundred pictures of these little guys but this one the best. This was part of a “hippie farm”. Some old lady who I KNOW was a Hippie, back in the day, grew her own food (plus who knows WHAT else) and looked completely self sustaining. Kind of cool!

Here are the Hippie guard dogs.

And here’s the Hippie bus (the same kind of bus I’m positive the Charles Manson hippies lived in) and the Hippie llamas and the Hippie chickens. Pretty cool, eh?

Traveling down the road, away from the Hippie farm, to an area called Charter Church Road. This is a road rumored to be haunted and to have a devil worshiping church located somewhere that I didn’t want to find. It’s kind of cool, really. One day I’ll find the church and tell you some of the local folklore that goes with it. Halloween sounds like a good time to do that! lol

Just a beautiful field on Charter Church.

Reminds me of Little House on the Prairie where Laura and Mary Ingals are running through the prairie?

Confessions of a bored housewife… you KNOW I’m bored when a picture of wheat fascinates me! lol But I really did love the way this turned out 🙂

Practicing shooting in macro here. This is the prettiest to me. It reminds me of a Victorian garden or wedding.

More Americana. Even in Missouri, we don’t see very many old churches like this left. Especially a church with a cemetery attached.

Here’s one of my favorite barns in Jefferson County. I could live inside that barn. lol

Bff hiding in my favorite tree in Jefferson County. This tree is at one of my most peaceful places. A place we call “The Slab”. As a teenager, I used to bring my lawn chair and hang out on the bank just to listen to the water run.

Here I am sitting on “the slab”. I used to bring my baby daughter here when I was 19. This is where I taught her to swim on some of my rare days off of work. It feels like a thousand years ago… but then it feels just like yesterday.

More of the slab. I can’t wait until it gets warm enough for me to get into the water 🙂

They try to discourage traffic at the slab now because the kids trash up the place. It’s a shame how some people who don’t respect nature have ruined it for the rest of us. Pick up your trash people and we can ALL enjoy the beauty again! Even as teenagers, we knew to pick up our beer bottles… I have very little patience for people who don’t pick up their trash now.

Here’s BFF looking pretty but the MAIN reason I wanted to show you this one is to show you the trash by the tree behind her. I’ve always taught my kids to leave nature better than when you arrived there. So, if you see trash, pick it up even if it’s not yours. I’m proud to say that they live by this even now that they’ve left my house and live on their own. It’s become second nature for them to keep the trash picked up 🙂

Whirlpool on the way out of the slab.

Goodbye slab! I’ll see you soon 🙂

I have to close down the day with yet another picture of yet another barn! lol

It’s been an awesome day! The best I’ve had in a very long time so to celebrate, BFF and I wrapped it up with our favorite local Mexican Restaurant. BFF won’t admit it but she lives to text 😉 So while I sit, all alone, waiting for my food, with nobody to talk to… Beth is being entertained by her phone! Yeah, that’s just how she is! lol She’ll probably kill me for this but you only live once, right?

So how did YOU spend Earth Day? Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did 🙂